Item counter and totalizer



June 19, 1956 L. COTTIER ITEM COUNTER AND TOTALIZER Filed May 17, 1955 United States Patent 2,751,151 ITEM COUNTER AND TOTALIZ ER Louis Cottier, Carouge-Geneva, Switzerland, assignor to Tavannes Watch Co. S. A. Tavannes, Switzerland, a Swiss firm Application May 17, 1955, Serial No. 509,049 Claims priority, application Switzerland May 17, 1954 9 Claims. (Cl. 235113) member which causes for each score the barrel to pro- 0 gress through one step in the direction of the winding of the spring, with a score-counting pinion which may thus be driven in opposite directions corresponding respectively to the winding and to the unwinding of the spring and with the pinion of the unit drum of the totalizer, which last mentioned pinion is mounted on a rocking member in a manner such that it can revolve only in the direction corresponding to the unwinding of the spring, the pawl being controlled by a further rocking member which urges it away from the teeth whenever the barrel has progressed by ten steps and allows said pawl to return into its original position when the released barrel has returned to its zero or starting point, sm'd pawl being also operable by a hand actuated push button which allows shifting it away from the barrel teeth as and when required.

I have illustrated by way of example in accompanying drawing a preferred embodiment of the object or my invention, said embodiment serving for the counting of the scores made by a golf player.

The single figure of the drawing is a plan view of this embodiment.

As illustrated, the barrel 1 revolves around a cylindrical hub 2 on the plate and encloses a driving spring 3 secured on the one hand to the hub of the barrel 2 and on the other hand to the inner wall of said barrel. The latter carries outwardly a series of teeth 4 except in the gap provided along the are 5 the length of which corresponds to the length occupied by ten teeth. These teeth cooperate -with' the four following parts:

-(u) A pawl 6 pivotaliy secured at 7 to the plate and subjected to the action of the return spring 8.

' (b)- A push button 9 adapted to act on a catch 10 piv- A orally secured at it to the plate, and subjected to the action of the return spring 12, while its nose cooperates with a stationary stud 13 so as to make the barrel 1 progress through the interval of one tooth in the direction of winding of the spring 3 each time the push button'9 is actuated, said direction being illustrated by the arrow f.

(c) A pinion i4 revolving round a stationary hub 14a carrying ten teeth and forming a support for the indicator of the score-counting means. I

(d) A pinion 15 provided with ten teeth and carrying the unit drum for the totalizer: said pinion 15 is adapted to revolve round the hub 16 carried by the rocking member 17 pivotally secured at 18 to the carrier plate. Said pinion is subjected to the action of a catch 19 pivotally secured at 20 to said rocking member and submitted to the action of the return spring 21; the nose of the catch 19 is shaped in a manner such that when the barrel 1 revolves in the direction f corresponding to the winding of the main driving spring, the pinion 15 cannot rotate and is shifted away from the barrel teeth against the action of the spring 21 while in contradistinction when the barrel revolves in the spring unwinding direction, the pinion 15 revolves freely while its teeth raise the catch 19 against the action of the spring 21.

To the pinion 15 is secured an elongated tooth 22 which causes for each revolution of the pinion 15 the pinion 23 to progress through one tooth, said pinion 23 is revolubly mounted on a hub 24 rigid with the rocking member 17 and carries the drum of the tens of the totalizer. This last mentioned pinion 23 is rigid with a heart-shaped return to zero cam 25 and one of its teeth 26 is longer so as to actuate once per revolution, the pinion 27 which carries the drum of the hundreds of the totalizer, said pinion 27 revolving round a hub 28 and being also rigid with a heart-shaped return to zero cam 29.

A rocking member 30 is revolubly carried on the barrel hub 2 and is provided with two diametrically opposed arms 31 and 32. Of these arms, the arm 31 cooperates with the jumper 33 which holds the rocking member 30 in two different positions of rest according as to whether it cooperates with one or the other of the terminal slopes 34 at the outer end of said arm 31. The other arm 32 of the rocking member 36) is provided with a terminal slope 36 cut off to form a fiat at and adapted to cooperate with a stud 37 provided on the catch 6. The latter may also be operated by hand through the push button 36. Lastly there is provided a stop 31in rigid with the underside of the arm 31 and defining, as disclosed hereinafter, the two positions of rest of the rocking member 36.

The totalizer may be returned to zero by the hammer 38 pivotally secured at 39 to the carrier plate and controlled by the push button 49. When the hammer which is provided with two noses 41 and 42 is actuated by said push button, the nose 42 acting on the stop 43 on the rocking member 17 shifts the latter so as to separate the two pinions 23 and 27 to an amount sufiicient to prevent the elongated tooth 26 from engaging the teeth of the pinion 27. This being done, said hammer nose 42 acts on the heart-shaped cam 25 while simultaneously the other hammer nose 41 acts on the heart-shaped cam 29.

The operation is as follows, at each stroke of a series the operator depresses the push button 9 which causes the barrel to progress by the interval of one tooth in the direction of winding of the barrel spring as illustrated by the arrow 1. The barrel in its turn causes the pinion 14' to rock through one tooth interval, said pinion 14 forming the counting means. When ten scores have been recorded, the flank 45 defining the last tooth on the barrelbefore the gap 5' engages the stop 31a on the rocking member and causes the latter to rock in a manner such as will bring it into its second inoperative position; during this movement the arm 32 of the rocking member 35 acts on the stud 37 through its terminal slope 36 so asto release the pawl 6 with reference to the teeth 4 on the barrel and it keeps said pawl released while said stud 37 engages the flat 35 at theend of said slope 36. The barrel 1 being no longer held by the pawl 6, begins revolving under the action of the driving spring in the spring unwinding direction untilit has returned into its zero position. At this moment the second flank 44 on the teeth of the barrel defining the other end of the gap in the barrel teeth engages the stop 31a and returns the rocking member 30 into its starting position. The released pawl 6 recngages the barrel teeth-4 under the action of its return spring 8. During said return movement, the pinion 14 is returned into its zero position-by the barrel teeth while the pinion 15 has progressed through ten teeth and the pinion 23 through one tooth whereby it records the first ten of the strokes. The operation may be reproduced as many times as there are tens in the series of strokes to be considered. If there are a few units over said tens, the push button 46 should be actuated so as to shift the pawl 6 away from the barrel teeth and to produce the same operation of the rocking member 30 as precedingly obtained through action on the stop 31a.

Thus it is possible to record series of strokes including possibly a difierent number of scores.

The return to zero is performed in two manners according to the figure carried by the totalizer. It is performed in one stage when the totalizer number ends with a zero. Supposing the totalizer indicates 730, depression of the push button 40 acting on the hammer 38 will produce an instantaneous return to zero of the hundreds and of the tens. This will cause a zero to appear on all the drums since the zero is already indicated by the pinions 14 and 15. In contradistinction, when the totalizer number is say 437, it is necessary to count three further units by acting on the push button 9. The push button 46 may then be depressed so as to provide for the inclusion of these three units in the total, which leads to the total figure 440 while the pinion 14 returns into its original position indicating zero.

The operator has only now to depress the push button 40 so that the complete return to zero is performed as in the above example referring to the figure 730.

It should be remarked that the concave section of the heart-shaped cam 25 on the pinion 23 does not lie along the axis of symmetry of said pinion 23 so that when 'the pinion 23 returns to zero the elongated tooth 26 when it lies to the rear of the tooth 22 on the pinion 15 executes at the utmost A of a revolution while on the other hand it revolves through li at the utmost when it lies to the front of the tooth 22, which excludes any possible interengagement between the elongated teeth 22 and 26.

The above described embodiment may be resorted to either singly or in combination with a time-indicating clockwork.

What I claim is:

1. A counting and totalizing arrangement chiefly for scoring purposes comprising a plate, a spring barrel revolubly carried by said plate, a main spring inside the barrel urging the latter into a predetermined angular setting, a series of teeth rigid with the periphery of the barrel, a pawl pivotally secured to the plate, a spring urging said pawl into engagement with the barrel teeth to hold fast the barrel against its spring, a catch pivotally carried by the plate and adapted to engage the teeth on said barrel to provide a progression of the barrel by one tooth interval in the main spring winding direction, a push button adapted upon depression to urge said catch into operative engagement with the barrel teeth, a scorecounting pinion operatively and permanently engaging the barrel teeth, a totalizer including a unit recording pinion, a rocking member pivotally secured to the plate and on which the unit pinion is revolubly carried, means urging the rocking member into a position for which the units pinion engages operatively the barrel teeth when the barrel revolves in the spring-unwinding direction, means controlling the pawl and adapted to disengage the latter and to allow a return movement of the barrel under the action of its spring into its predetermined starting position each time the barrel has advanced by ten teeth intervals beyond said starting position and to release said pawl and allow it to return into its barrel engaging position under the action of its spring whenever the barrel has returned into its starting position.

' 2. A counting and totalizing arrangement chiefly for scoring purposes comprising a plate, a spring barrel revolubly carried by said plate, a main spring inside the barrel urging the latter into a predetermined angular setting,, a series of teeth rigid with the periphery of the barrel, a'pawl pivotally secured to the plate, a spring urging said pawl into engagement with the barrel teeth to hold the barrel against rotation, a catch pivotally carried by the plate and adapted to engage the teeth on said barrel to provide a progression of the barrel by one tooth interval in the main spring winding direction, a push button adapted upon depression to urge said catch into operative engagement with the barrel teeth, a scorecounting pinion operatively and permanently engaging the barrel teeth, a totalizer including a unit recording pinion, a rocking member pivotally secured to the plate and on which the unit pinion is revolubly carried, means urging the rocking member into a position for which the unit pinion engages operatively the barrel teeth when the barrel revolves in its spring-unwinding direction, means controlling the pawl and adapted to disengage the latter and to allow a return movement of the barrel under the action of its spring into its predetermined starting position each time the barrel has advanced by ten teeth intervals beyond said starting position and to release said pawl and allow it to return into its barrel engaging position under the action of its spring whenever the barrel has returned into its starting position and a further push button adapted upon depression to transiently release the pawl to allow the barrel to return into its starting position.

3. A counting and totalizing arrangement chiefly for scoring purposes comprising a plate, a spring barrel revolubly carried by said plate, a main spring inside the barrel urging the latter into a predetermined angular setting, a. series of teeth rigid with the periphery of the barrel, a pawl pivotally secured to the plate, a spring urging said pawl into engagement with the barrel teeth to hold the barrel against rotation, a catch pivotally carried by the plate and adapted to engage the teeth on said barrel to provide a progression of the barrel by one tooth interval in the main spring winding direction, a push button adapted upon depression to urge said catch into operative engagement with the barrel teeth, a score-counting pinion operatively and permanently engaging the barrel teeth, a totalizer including a unit recording pinion, a rocking member pivotally secured to the plate and on which the unit pinion is revolubly carried, means urging the rocking member into a position for which the units pinion engages operatively the barrel teeth when the barrel revolves in its spring-unwinding direction, a second rocking member revolubly carried by the plate coaxially with the barrel and adapted to be angularly shifted, when the barrel has moved out of a predetermined starting position by ten teeth intervals, out of a first position into a second position for which it urges the pawl away from the barrel teeth to allow a return movement of the barrel under the action of its spring into its predetermined starting position, said return movement of the barrel returning said second rocking member into its first position for which it releases the pawl and allows it to return into its barrel engaging position under the action of its spring, and a further push button adapted upon depression to transiently release the pawl to allow the barrel to return into its starting position.

4. A counting and totalizing arrangement, chiefly for scoring purposes, comprising a plate, a spring barrel revolubly carried by said plate, a main spring inside the barrel urging the latter into a predetermined angular setting, a series of teeth rigid with the periphery of the barrel, along an arc the ends of which are spaced by a gap the length of which is equal to the length occupied by ten barrel teeth, a pawl pivotally secured to the plate, a spring urging said pawl into engagement with the barrel teeth to hold the barrel against rotation, a catch pivotally carried by the plate and adapted to engage the teeth on said barrel to provide a progression of the barrel by one tooth interval in the main spring winding direction, a push button adapted upon depression to urge said catch into operative engagement with the barrel teeth, a scoreconnting pinion operatively and permanently engaging the barrel teeth, a totalizer including a unit recording pinion, a rocking member pivotally secured to the plate and on area-151 which the units pinion is revolubly carried, means urging the rocking member into a position for which the units pinion engages operatively the barrel teeth when the barrel revolves in its spring-unwinding direction, a second rocking member revolubly carried by the plate coaxially with the barrel, a projection rigid with the second rocking member and adapted to be angularly shifted in opposite directions with said second rocking member upon abutment against it of either end of the gap in the teeth on the barrel, means cooperating with one end of the second rocking member to hold the latter selectively in one of two angularly spaced positions defined by said abutment and for one of which, corresponding to a progression of the barrel away from its predetermined starting position through the angular spacing by ten teeth intervals of the ends of the gap, the second rocking member urges the pawl away from the barrel teeth to allow a return movement of the barrel returning said second rocking member through its projection into its first position for which it releases the pawl and allows it to return into its barrel engaging position under the action of its spring.

5. A counting and totalizing arrangement chiefly for scoring purposes comprising a plate, a spring barrel revolubly carried by said plate, a main spring inside the barrel urging the latter into a predetermined angular setting, a series of teeth rigid with the periphery of the barrel, along an arc the ends of which are spaced by a gap the length of which is equal to the length occupied by ten barrel teeth, a pawl pivotally secured to the plate, a spring urging said pawl into engagement with the barrel teeth to hold the barrel against rotation, a catch pivotally carried by the plate and adapted to engage the teeth on said barrel to provide a progression of the barrel by one tooth interval in the main spring winding direction, a push button adapted upon depression to urge said catch into operative engagement with the barrel teeth, a score-counting pinion operatively and permanently engaging the barrel teeth, a totalizer including a unit recording pinion, a rocking member pivotally secured to the plate and on which the units pinion is revolubly carried, means urging the rocking member into a position for which the units pinion engages operatively the barrel teeth when the barrel revolves in its spring-unwinding direction, means through which the rocking of the barrel between two angular positions defined by the registering of either end of the gap in the barrel teeth with a predetermined direction produces when the barrel has reached one of said positions a disengagement of the pawl and thereby a release of the barrel which returns into its predetermined starting position corresponding to its other angular position under the action of the main spring, said return of the barrel into said starting posi tion providing for the reengagement of the catch with the barrel teeth for further operation and a further push button adapted upon depression to transiently release the pawl to allow the barrel to return into its starting position.

6. A counting and totalizing arrangement chiefly for scoring purposes comprising a plate, a spring barrel revolubly carried by said plate, a main spring inside the barrel urging the latter into a predetermined angular setting, a series of teeth rigid with the periphery of the barrel, a pawl pivotally secured to the plate, a spring urging said pawl into engagement with the barrel teeth to hold the barrel against rotation, a catch pivotally carried by the plate and adapted to engage the teeth on said barrel to provide a progression of the barrel by one tooth interval in the main spring winding direction, a push button adapted upon depression to urge said catch into operative engagement with the barrel teeth, a score counting pinion operatively and permanently engaging the barrel teeth, a totalizer including a unit recording pinion, a rocking member pivotally secured to the plate and on which the unit pinion is revolubly carried, means urging the rocking member into a position for which the units pinion engages operatively the barrel teeth when the barrel revolves in the spring-unwinding direction, a tens recording pinion revolubly carried by said rocking member, means rotating in unison with the units pinion for shifting angularly the tens pinion through one tooth interval for each revolution of the units pinion through ten teeth, a hundreds pinion revolubly carried by the plate and means rigid with the tens pinion adapted to shift the hundreds pinion through one tooth interval each time the tens pinion has moved through ten teeth, a return to zero cam rigid with the tens pinion, a further return to zero cam rigid with the hundreds pinion, a hammer pivotally secured to the plate and provided with two noses adapted respectively to return to zero the two return to zero cams, hand operable means adapted to urge the hammer into its operative position, and means whereby operation of the hammer engages the latter with the rocking member and urges the tens pinion on said rocking member away from the hundreds pinion, means controlling the pawl and adapted to disengage the latter and to allow a return movement of the barrel under the action of its spring into its predetermined starting position each time the barrel has advanced by ten teeth intervals beyond said starting position and to release said pawl and allow it to return into its barrel engaging position under the action of its spring whenever the barrel has returned into its starting position.

7. A counting and totalizing arrangement chiefly for scoring purposes comprising a plate, a spring barrel revolubly carried by said plate, a main spring inside the barrel urging the latter into a predetermined angular setting, a series of teeth rigid with the periphery of the barrel, a pawl pivotally secured to the plate, a spring urging said pawl into engagement with the barrel teeth to hold the barrel against the rotation, a catch pivotally carried by the plate and adapted to engage the teeth on said barrel to provide a progression of the barrel by one tooth interval in the main spring winding direction, a push button adapted upon depression to urge said catch into operative engagement with the barrel teeth, a scorecounting pinion operatively and permanently engaging the barrel teeth, a totalizer including a unit recording pinion, a rocking member pivotally secured to the plate and on which the unit pinion is revolubly carried, a catch pivotally secured to the rocking member and yieldingly engaging the teeth on the units pinion to prevent operation of the latter for the winding direction of the barrelspring for which direction the units pinion moves away from the barrel teeth with the rocking member and cooperating catch, a spring urging the last mentioned catch into engagement with the units pinion, the units pinion engaging again the barrel teeth, when the barrel rocks in the direction of unwinding of its spring for which direction the catch on the rocking member rides over the teeth of the units pinion, means controlling the pawl and adapted to disengage the latter and allow a return movement of the barrel under the action of its spring into its predetermined starting position each time the barrel has advanced by ten teeth intervals beyond said starting position and to release said pawl and allow it to return into its barrel engaging position under the action of its spring whenever the barrel has returned into its starting position and a further push button adapted upon depression to transiently release the pawl to allow the barrel to return into its starting position.

8. A counting and totalizing arrangement chiefly for scoring purposes, comprising a plate, a spring barrel revolubly carried by said plate, a main spring inside the barrel urging the latter into a predetermined angular setting, a series of teeth rigid with the periphery of the barrel, a pawl pivotally secured to the plate, a spring urging said pawl into engagement with the barrel teeth to hold the barrel against rotation, a catch pivotally carried by the plate and adapted to engage the teeth on said barrel to provide a progression of the barrel by one tooth interval in the main spring winding direction, a push button adapted upon depression to urge said catch into operative engagement with the barrel teeth, a score-counting pinion operatively and permanently engaging the barrel, a totalizer including a unit recording pinion, a rocking member pivotally secured to the plate and on which the unit pinion is revolubly carried, means urging the rocking member into a position for which the units pinion engages operatively the barrel teeth when the barrel revolves in the spring-unwinding direction, a tens recording pinion revolubly carried by said rocking member, means rotating in unison with the units pinion for shifting angularly the tens pinion through one tooth interval for each revolution of the units pinion through ten teeth, a hundreds pinion revolubly carried by the plate and means rigid with the tens pinion adapted to shift the hundreds pinion through one tooth interval each time the tens pinion has moved through ten teeth, means for returning the tens and hundreds pinions to zero, a catch pivotally secured to the rocking member and yieldingly engaging the teeth on the units pinion to prevent operation of the latter in the winding direction of the spring barrel for which direction the units pinion moves away from the barrel teeth with the rocking member and cooperating catch, a spring urging the last mentioned catch, into engagement with the units pinion, the latter engaging again the barrel teeth when the barrel turns in the direction of unwinding of its spring for which direction the catch on the rocking member rides over the teeth of the units pinion, means controlling the pawl and adapted to disengage the latter and to allow a return movement of the barrel under the action of its spring into its predetermined starting position each time the barrel has advanced by ten teeth intervals beyond said starting position and to release said pawl and allow it to return into its barrel engaging position under the action of its spring whenever the barrel has returned into its starting position.

9. A counting and totalizing arrangement, chiefly for scoring purposes, comprising a plate, a spring barrel revolubly carried by said plate, a main spring inside the barrel urging the latter into a predetermined angular setting, a series of teeth rigid with the periphery of the barrel, along an arc the ends of which are spaced by a gap the length of which is equal to the length occupied by ten barrel teeth, a pawl pivotally secured to the plate,

a spring urging said pawl into engagement with the barrel teeth to hold the barrel against rotation, a catch pivotally carried by the plate and adapted to engage the teeth on said barrel to provide a progression of the barrel by one tooth interval in the main spring winding direction, a push button adapted upon depression to urge said catch into operative engagement with the barrel teeth, a scorecounting pinion operatively and permanently engaging the barrel teeth, a totalizer including a unit recording pinion, a rocking member pivotally secured to the plate and on which the units pinion is revolubly carried, means urging the rocking member into a position for which the units pinion engages operatively the barrel teeth when the barrel revolves in its spring-unwinding direction, a tens recording pinion revolubly carried by said rocking member, means rotating in unison with the units pinion for shifting angularly the tens pinion through one tooth interval for each revolution of the units pinion through ten teeth, a hundreds pinion revolubly carried by the plate, means rigid with the tens pinion adapted to shift the hundreds pinion through one tooth interval each time the tens pinion has moved through ten teeth, and corn mon hand-operable return to zero means for the tens and hundreds pinion, a further push-button adapted upon depression to transiently release the pawl to allow the barrel to return into its starting position, a second rocking member revolubly carried by the plate coaxially with the barrel, a projection rigid with the second rocking member and adapted to be angularly shifted in opposite directions with said second rocking member upon abutment against it of either end of the gap in the teeth on the barrel, means cooperating with one end of the second rocking member to hold the latter selectively in one of two angularly spaced positions defined by said abutments and for one of which corresponding to a progression of the barrel away from its predetermined starting position through the angular spacing by ten teeth intervals of the ends of the gap, the second rocking member urges the pawl away from the barrel teeth to allow a return movement of the barrel returning said second rocking member through its projection into its first position for which it releases the pawl and allows it to return into its barrel engaging position under the action of its spring.

No references cited. 

